Antero de Quental (Inglês)

anguishes and elected death as the only chance for liberating the unconscious forces that markMan’s destiny. In 1890, now in a euphoric phase, free from pessimistic despair, he published EnsaioSobre as Tendências Gerais da Filosofia na última Metade do Século XIX (Essay On the GeneralPhilosophical Tendencies in the Latter Half of the 19th Century). Finally, taking in the generaldisillusionment caused by the grave recession that hit the country and, tormented by family problems,he once again entered a deep depression which led him to commit suicide in Ponta Delgada onSeptember 11, 1891.Poetic activity structures Antero de Quental’s work. Thus, whereas poetry from his youth — Sonetosde Antero (Sonnets of Antero, 1861), Odes Modernas (Modern Odes, 1863) and PrimaverasRomânticas (Romantic Springs, 1872) — is highly marked by the ideals of Portuguese culturalrenewal, poetry from his mature days successively echo his pessimistic phase, most distinct ofwhich, are the sonnets that make up the series Elogio da Morte (Death’s Praise, 1875) and euphoricphase, documented in sonnets such as O Convertido (The Converted, 1875), Na Mão de Deus(In God’s Hand) and Redenção (Redemption, 1882), Voz Interior (Inner Voice, 1883), or “SolemniaVerba” (1884). His sonnets — poetic form in which he attained one of the most perfect degrees inthe history of Portuguese language literatures — were object of several editions in his life: in 1881he published the book Sonetos (Sonnets) and later, organized by Oliveira Martins, Sonetos Completos(Complete Sonnets, 1886); some of these poems were translated into German by Wilhelm Storck(1829-1905), translator of Camões to whom Antero sent an autobiographic letter (1887) containingimportant information to understand his personality, his literary work, and his involvement in theenterprise of modernizing Portuguese political and literary ideals.Antero de Quental was the undisputed spiritual leader of the generation of brilliant intellectualyoungsters which would become known as the “70s Generation”, among which, besides him, wereEça de Queiroz, Teófilo Braga (1843-1924), Oliveira Martins (1845-1894), Ramalho Ortigão andBatalha Reis. After his death, these and other friends collaborated in the volume Antero de Quental— In Memoriam (1896), with texts that are precious testimonies of the man and his work, andthrough him, of the generation to which he belonged — one of the most dynamic and productivein terms of the renewal of thought, literature and politics in Portugal. Eça de Queiroz, who in InMemoriam collaborated with the text Um Génio Que Era Um Santo (A Genious who was a Saint)— crucial to know the man Antero was, from a friend, a companion and a critic’s perspective— sketched out in the novel A Capital! (The Capital!) (written between 1877 and 1884, never finished),an acrimonious portrait of Antero and other companions of the Coimbrã generation, himselfincluded, where Antero lives through the character Damião, a socialist activist intellectual who, afterleading his generation in Coimbra University, hovers, cold and brilliant over the interests and theincompatibilities of the political parties who cannot and don’t know how to manage, in the field, theprogrammatic legacy of the 1870s generation.It is this fascinating character and his path through life and death, measured between idealisticeuphoria and the despair of disillusionment, characteristic of the Portuguese intellectual circles ofthe last quarter of the 19th century, which we have adopted as a guide to revisiting the city of PontaDelgada — his cradle, his refuge and his tomb.The texts that make up this guide are based on two main works:CARREIRO, José Bruno Tavares (1948). Antero de Quental: Subsídios para a sua Biografia (Antero de Quental – Subsidies for HisBiography). Lisbon: Instituto Cultural de Ponta Delgada, 2 volumes (Ponta Delgada Cultural Institute, reprinted in 1981).MARTINS, Ana Mª de Almeida (1986), Antero de Quental: Photobiography. Lisbon: Imprensa Nacional-Casa da Moeda (new edition,revised and enlarged, 2008).3